"Club Penton" - Ask questions to Hollywood insider "Penton-Man"

[blindcat87]

Penton,

Any comment on Ms. Finke's take on the end of the war. I thought she was a sharper cookie than that. But I guess with Bill Gates telling everyone that packaged media is dead and Steve Jobs basically singing the same tune, a lot of people not aware of the realities of the situation are going to fall for it.

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/

Said it before, will say it again, people like shiny things. Downloads are not shiny.

Chris

[Agent Cooper]

Lol - Wasn't Horseflesh the dwarf that was left on the cutting room floor in Gilliams' Time Bandit, in an attempt not to have the same number of dwarfs as in a certain Disney classic animated flick?

Yeah. I'm a big Python nut.

Hope it is okay, since Penton already had a go at it.

[Agent Cooper]

Originally Posted by horseflesh

I do generally like Gilliam's work.

+1.

I'm so happy the movie he is filming right now is safe with the casting of Depp, Law and Farrell.

Oh, I have a tough riddle for Penton as well:

- from which popular American television show is my username borrowed? It aired in.... oh, wait a minute. Nevermind!

[Polyh3dron]

Hey Penton, do you know what Ken Graffeo's status is? Is he still with Uni Home Entertainment only in a less public role, or is he being given the boot?

[Neo65]

Originally Posted by Kris Deering

Just to add to this, currently Warner is the only Blu-ray studio that uses VC-1 prominently (short of the Universal announcement obviously) and there is no reason they can't continue that route since they own their encoders and have their own authoring house (GDMX). Disney has used VC-1 but has favored AVC and Universal uses outside authoring houses that I'm sure could use whichever they see fit. I just don't know what we'll see now that MS has essentially wiped their hands clean of it and moved on to other avenues of interest.

I have to really say this to MSFT about VC-1. Thanks for all the pain. If I was a company making a video processor chip, having every little tinpot dictator coming up with new codecs forcing me to spend millions on R&D to support a codec that they then move away from, then once I have the chip in my hands, that's REALLY going to create warm and fuzzy feelings for them.

The only thing I can say is that I'm glad it's only one useless codec taking up real estate on a chip instead of ten.

[edgebsl]

Originally Posted by blindcat87

Penton,

Any comment on Ms. Finke's take on the end of the war. I thought she was a sharper cookie than that. But I guess with Bill Gates telling everyone that packaged media is dead and Steve Jobs basically singing the same tune, a lot of people not aware of the realities of the situation are going to fall for it.

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/

Said it before, will say it again, people like shiny things. Downloads are not shiny.

Chris

Here's the scary thing,

Polaroid just did away with polaroid cameras too, But the day that I cant get film for my 35mm slr Im oing to be pissed!

So we have digital pics, music, videos, books and now movies?

Digital is great, dont get me wrong....but without a computer you actually have nothing!

I know everyone has one...But if lightning takes out your pc....you cant access anything. If some supervirus,makes it unsafe to use the internet for 3 days...you have access to nothing..

We are way too dependent on computers.


Not too mention the PC generation is under the opinion that files arent worth any or very much $. We convert all of our artforms to files...what does that do to artists?

It sucks that whole thing happened to music, where it exists mainly on the pc and now more people steal music than pay for it. We want to do that for everything else? Who can look at what happened to the music industry and say, "this is such a great idea!" ?

Good copy protection can hinder , but people will still think they are getting ripped off. Paying for downloads is a slow process....i tunes is doing well now, but it's slow getting people to pay for something they are used to getting for free. Those who download illegally still outnumber the ones who pay.

We are not ready for DD movies and thank god for that.

Blu Ray is the movie industry's last hope of not becoming the sinking ship the music industry is.

[eChopper]

Theres a certain nostalgia to owning a song on vinyl, or a movie on a disc. I hope we never lose that choice.

[Nathan P]

Originally Posted by edgebsl

Here's the scary thing,

Polaroid just did away with polaroid cameras too, But the day that I cant get film for my 35mm slr Im oing to be pissed!

So we have digital pics, music, videos, books and now movies?

Digital is great, dont get me wrong....but without a computer you actually have nothing!

I know everyone has one...But if lightning takes out your pc....you cant access anything. If some supervirus,makes it unsafe to use the internet for 3 days...you have access to nothing..

We are way too dependent on computers.


Not too mention the PC generation is under the opinion that files arent worth any or very much $. We convert all of our artforms to files...what does that do to artists?

It sucks that whole thing happened to music, where it exists mainly on the pc and now more people steal music than pay for it. We want to do that for everything else? Who can look at what happened to the music industry and say, "this is such a great idea!" ?

Good copy protection can hinder , but people will still think they are getting ripped off. Paying for downloads is a slow process....i tunes is doing well now, but it's slow getting people to pay for something they are used to getting for free. Those who download illegally still outnumber the ones who pay.

We are not ready for DD movies and thank god for that.

Blu Ray is the movie industry's last hope of not becoming the sinking ship the music industry is.

Sorry for intruding in pentons thread but here in the UK the biggest internet pipe the average user can get is 8mbit per sec. It would therefore take 14hours to download a movie it aint gonna happen for years.

[*TIMMIE*]

here it is 20Mb internet. It will take hours to download a single movie. Even with the overcompressed "quality" downloads MS wants to offer. Don't believe it will work any time soon.

[Nathan P]

Penton

Since we could be on the verge of hijacking your thread what is the industry's thoughts on downloads - do they see/want them as the mainstream way of distributing hi def movies or are they wanting to stick with an actual disc.

[Mystery Clock]

Hey PM,

Slightly OT - How many (if any) of the Academy screeners that were sent out were available on Blu-ray this year? Ones that weren't already available via retail, that is.

Are they still all going out on DVD? I imagine the Academy membership ranges widely from fairly current technology types to old-timers who wouldn't know a BD from a DVD or who think VHS is good enough.

And of course, its about the content more than the quality for screeners, but it would be a nice move next year to pool up resources and give 'em all a BD player and BD-screeners.

-John

[Jiffylush]

Originally Posted by Mystery Clock

Hey PM,

Slightly OT - How many (if any) of the Academy screeners that were sent out were available on Blu-ray this year? Ones that weren't already available via retail, that is.

Are they still all going out on DVD? I imagine the Academy membership ranges widely from fairly current technology types to old-timers who wouldn't know a BD from a DVD or who think VHS is good enough.

And of course, its about the content more than the quality for screeners, but it would be a nice move next year to pool up resources and give 'em all a BD player and BD-screeners.

-John

What's funny is that using BD players and software could make it take longer for the screener to get out on the net.

Basically due to not many people having the hardware to rip them (yet). Not to mention the larger file size.

[Mystery Clock]

Originally Posted by Jiffylush

What's funny is that using BD players and software could make it take longer for the screener to get out on the net.

Basically due to not many people having the hardware to rip them (yet). Not to mention the larger file size.

I was thinking about that too, after the screener-leak scandal of a couple of years ago (?) that got that one fellow kicked out. That's a side benefit, along with getting more eyeballs on BD and more talent and brass thinking about it in a positive way.

Not that that's really necessary at this point, per-se, but a little back-rubbing never hurt, eh?

-John

[sj001]

Originally Posted by merrick97

Give me Transformers and ALL will be forgiven. I no longer like my "dead" version and I want to PROVE to all the HD-DVD elitist that a higher bitrate version of Transformers on blu will look better than that DEAD format.

Ya know, the format that everyone seems to be forgetting about.

Heh, just give me a Transformers with a LOSSLESS soundtrack instead of a half-assed Dolby Digital Plus soundtrack, and I will be happy.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by hollywoodguy

Make that two: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...postcount=1167.

On a side note, what a difference a year makes: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...1#post10300331 and http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...3#post10325163.

Interesting thread all around. A window into the past in many ways. You personally seem to have taken a more active role in all of this since then, wouldn't you say?

I particularly like this one from our forum, short and sweet…………………….
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...postcount=6216

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Mr_Bester

What happened??? Penton apparently used to write entire books about the war, now we get a few select words...

I’ve since been reading too many e-mails from studio Presidents.
You’re lucky if you get a full sentence when they communicate online.

With *working* V.P.’s it’s generally several sentences.
“Directors” or managers, I’ll get a complete paragraph.

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

I’ve since been reading too many e-mails from studio Presidents.
You’re lucky if you get a full sentence when they communicate online.

With *working* V.P.’s it’s generally several sentences.
“Directors” or managers, I’ll get a complete paragraph.

oooo

"Now the studios executives, who can't read, can go and see the talking picture"

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Dotpattern

As Elvis would say, "Thank ya, thank ya very much."

But Penton, seriously thanks so much for being the solid voice of reason on this site (along with Wicky).

Not sure if you've already answered this, but what happens with you now?

I haven’t decided but, I may open up my own House of Blus and interview new job applicants all day long for the bar maid position.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

oooo

"Now the studios executives, who can't read, can go and see the talking picture"

You my friend have a fabulous memory for movie shorts.

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

I haven’t decided but, I may open up my own House of Blus and interview new job applicants all day long for the bar maid position.

WWII looms. We need our big guns rested and lubricated.